Foreign experts criticize RI's truth commission
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
International experts on truth and reconciliation commissions have expressed concerns about Indonesia's recently passed law on the establishment of such a commission, saying that it contained loopholes that have distinct disadvantages for victims.
Speaking during a convention of managers of truth commissions and representatives from the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) here on Monday, ICTJ senior associate Eduardo Gonzalez said one of the loopholes causing concern was that the commission did not have a mandate to conduct historical analyses nor to determine the patterns, spread or systematic character of the crimes in question.
He said the law, passed in September 2004, did not allow the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR) to recommend policies to prevent the repetition of the situations that caused the violations in the first place.
Gonzalez, who was also a member of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, added that there was no indication in the law that any aspects of the commission's work would be conducted publicly, which would allow the victim's experiences to be known by the society at large.
Marcie Mersky, a former executive secretary of the Guatemala Historical Clarification Commission, said it was essential to identify the historical cases and the conditions that led to the atrocities and dissenting voices.
"It's important to establish institutional responsibility to open the door to effective reformation in concerned institutions. What happened were not just accidents nor excesses, but were results of very conscious, well-applied policies. It's not just that there were a few bad people, but (it was exactly) the way the political and military systems were set up," she told The Jakarta Post.
The establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is mandated by a People's Consultative Assembly decree issued in 2000, which states that Indonesian history has been a witness to oppression resulting from discriminatory practices considered to be forms of human rights abuses.
Within the seven years of its mandated existence, including a two-year possible extension, the commission is expected to resolve cases of human rights violations that occurred before 2000, the year the law on human rights tribunal was passed.
The law on the commission stipulates that human rights violators can receive a formal pardon if they confess to their wrongdoings and the victims forgive them.
If the victims refuse to forgive their abusers, the commission can still recommend that the president grant them amnesty. If the alleged perpetrators completely deny the accusations against them, they will be prosecuted by the human rights court.
Families and victims of various tragedies, including the Tanjung Priok massacre in 1984, the 1989 Lampung incident, the mass disappearances of government critics, the May 1998 mayhem, and the Trisakti shootings in 1998, have opposed the law as it would allow the perpetrators to go unpunished.
The military and police forces, many of whom are likely to be named in rights investigations, have suggested that the cases be reconciled without disclosing the truth, because revealing it would only lead to new conflicts within the nation.